It is both: if you find yourself abandoning systems after 3 weeks, then something about the way the system fits you is wrong. Perhaps it's too complex. Maybe

It is both: if you find yourself abandoning systems after 3 weeks, then something about the way the system fits you is wrong. Perhaps it's too complex. Maybe it isn't flexible enough. Maybe it inherently creates too much guilt so you get frustrated and give up. It may help to think of the number one goal of a todo list as a place to get onto paper (or bytes, whatever) all the things you have in your head that you think you need to do, NOT as something which will help you get more done. The primary benefit is to remove your anxiety about having to remember everything you need to do. Once it's all out of your head and in one place, you can easily determine what it is you need to be doing right now, and forget everything else. Complicated GTD or todo systems just bog you down and take too much fiddling and constant review/maintenance. I use two lists: a "dump" list where I put anything/everything that I need/want to do, and an "action" list where I move a few things from the dump that I'm going to focus on for the day or very immediate future. It's a simple matter to go through the dump and pick out the highest priorities and move them to action. If you're struggling, I'd advocate trying something simple like this and forgetting more complicated systems. Google Tasks is perfect for something like this.